Catalyst converter



Filed Jan. 18, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1- INVENTOR l PatentedJune 21, 1938CATALYST CONVERTER James M. Jenkins, Philadelphia, Pa., assignor toAndale Company, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of PennsylvaniaApplication January18, 1937, Serial No. 121,043

7 Claims. (Cl. 23-288) The present invention relates to apparatus foruse in the promotion of catalytic reactions and is particularlyconcerned with certain improvements whereby it is possible to attaingreater simplicity and accessibility of structure, efiicienoy ofoperation and accuracy of temperature control.

The invention is especially adapted for use in that type of catalystconverter wherein a coollar liquid bath chamber carried upon thehorizontal tube plate 5 whichin turn is adapted to rest upon suitablestructural foundation work I.

' The annular chamber 5 is embraced between the outer cylinder 8 and theinner cylinder 9,

the cylinder 9 is closed by means of a plate it which. provides aconnecting passage il across the bottom of the device.

The top of the annular liquid bath chamber is closed by the upper tubeplate l2 between ing medium, such as air, is employed for maintheperiphery of which and the upper portion 10 taining a liquid bath suchas a solution of a of the cylindert is provided an annular expan-Sllitable S a e like, at a substantially sion joint iii. The innercylinder 53 is Welded constant temperature, the bath, of course, beingto the under side of the tube plate l2 as shown. arranged in heattransfer relationship with the The catalyst tubes it extend verticallythrough catalyst tubes. the annular chamber 5 and have their ends suit-5 Among the objects of the invention is the proably connected to thetube plates so as to receive vision of a converter of the type d c ed inthe gas to be treated into their upper ends and zvhich ready access maybe had to the catalyst to discharge the products of the reaction fromubes as Well as to the cooling tubes without their lower ends.

disturbance of one or the other and with mini An annular gas inletheader l5 surrounds the 20 mum interference with their associatedheaders, upper ends of the catalyst tubes itand an optube plates,connecting conduits, and the like. posed header l6 surrounds their lowerends in Another Object O e invention s o p ov de a position to receivethe discharged products oi CO Ve ter 0f the type described in which thethe reaction. The gas is delivered to the inlet 21151265115322.5519cooling medium are disposed. 1111 header through the connectlon In andthe prod- 25 i eontalnplg e temperature CODCTO ucts of the reaction aredischarged or withdiawn bathilrnhafldlrectjioln ggebnirally transverseLof through the congiecttiilon IS the direction of fiow a 1n w 10 ie ca ays u es are arrange being indicated 3 e arrows. A further object of theinvention is to decrease The liquid bath chamber is provided at somestal a f 24 d a i c tth suitable location in its circumference with the30 H W 11 Oregoing Ogether W1 11 Such 0 inlet connection to and theoutlet connecton 20 Objects as en y gl zllfim or wll'llich as well aswith an auxiliary drain outlet 2i and m y pp r. reinar are 0 cine s 1 asuitable vent 22 in the upper tube plate. The trated in p eferred formin the accompanyin bathmay be a liquid salt such as sodium or pog QSE YG L t-assium chlor de or a bath of molten metal 35 e r A is ave lcaltransv r e sectl n th h such as lead but the type of bath has noielation il p g t app g i; t l d to the present invention and I do notwish to be igure 1s a par 1a sec ion on an en limited to any particularliquid.

scale taken approximately as indicated by the The inlet header i5 isprovided at the bottom 1me 2 2 111,F1gure 1; with a surrounding ring 23and an innerring 40 Figure 3 1s a horizontal section on a scale still Mand at the top, at a plurality f suitably i j f f g f t t f spacedpoints, with a series of lifting lugs 25.

3:; O cons rue ion 16 mg 0 6 CO0 mg u The header i5 is also providedwith one or more Figure 4 is a vertical central section, also onfgspectmn wemngs 25 suitably closed by covers an enlarged scale, throughthe lower end of one M 1 l2 of the catalyst tubes where it passesthrough the Inslde t rmg the tube p ate 18 supporting tube plate. formedwith a central opening 28 above which By referring to the drawings it111 b seen is carried a plate 29 formed with a central outlet .50 thatmy impmvm apparatus inchldes the annw opening 3!] and an annular seriesof inlet openr ings 3!. The cooling medium, preferably air, 0

comes in through the supply connection 32 and is distributed to theopenings 3! by means of an annular header 33. The warm air is dischargedthrough the opening 3% and the outlet connection 34, the direction ofcirculation being indicated by the arrows.

A cylindrical chamber 35, which is closed at the bottom by a plate 36located in a plane slightly above the plate It! in order to provide ahorizontal connecting passage 31, is suspended by its upper end 33 fromthe plates I2 and 29, the end 38 being located to the inside of theannular series of openings 33. It will be seen, therefore, that betweenthe outside of the cylindrical chamber 35 and the inside of the cylinder9 there is provided an annular chamber 39 which serves as a headerchamber for supplying the cooling medium to the cooling tubes in amanner to be described just below. The chamber 35 constitutes an outletchamber for the warm air, said chamber delivering to the opening 30 anddischarge connection 34 as already described.

The cooling medium is carried outwardly from the annular chamber 39through the liquid bath chamber by means of a plurality of horizontal,radially disposed tubes 48 in the center of each of which is located areturn tube section 4|, the details of which tubes are shown to bestadvantage in Figures 2 and 3. The outer ends of the tubes 40 are closedby the plugs 42 and are fitted into positioning sockets 43 carried onthe inside of the outer ring 8 of the liquid bath chamber. The innerends of the tubes 40 are secured in the cylinder 9 in any suitablemanner as by means of the welds 44.

The outer ends of the return tube sections l! are flared slightly andserrated as shown at #35 in Figure 3 in order to provide for readyingress of the returning warm air which is carried back to the centralchamber 35 and there discharged. The inner ends of the tubes 4| aresecured in the cylindrical wall of the chamber 35 by means ofscrew-threaded plugs 46 to which they are welded as at 41.

The tubes 40 with their central return sections 4| are arranged in aseries of horizontal planes with the tubes in each plane staggered withrespect to the plane immediately above or below as clearly brought outin Figures 1 and 2. The catalyst tubes M are disposed between the tubesl-i) as most clearly shown in Figure 2 and it will be seen that thecooling tubes are arranged to extend through the liquid bat-h chamber ina direction which is generally transverse to the direction in which thecatalyst tubes extend. Furthermore the catalyst tubes are increased innumber from the center outwardly by virtue of the widening spaces aboutthe radially disposed cooling tubes 40. This also is shown to bestadvantage in Figure 2.

The lower ends of the catalyst tubes M are securely fastened in the tubeplate 6 as shown in enlarged view in Figure 4, from inspection of whichit will be seen that the tube ends are expanded into V-grooves 58 inorder tosecure a very firm connection between the tubes and the tubeplate. This is important because the tubes actually carry the weight ofthe upper tube sheet l2 and all of the attached parts so as to permitthe necessary expansion and contraction, which latter is taken care ofby the expansion joint I3 already mentioned. The tubes 66 are, ofcourse, filled to any desired depth with the catalyst 49 which issupported upon the screen 50 located just above the upper surface of thetube plate 6. The screen in turn is carried upon the upper end of ashort inner stub tube or bushing 5| under which is placed the supportingpin 52.

A series of thermo couples 53 is provided for the purpose of determiningand controlling the temperature of the bath, the control, preferably,being automatic and obtained by means of varying the weight of air whichis passed through the cooling tubes.

In operation the chamber 5' is first filled to a suitable depth with thedesired liquid bath which is preferably preheated before beingintroduced through the connection l9. At this time, of course, theoutlet 26 and auxiliary drain 2| are closed.

The gases to be treated come in through the connection IT and aredistributed to the catalyst tubes by means of the header IS in themanner already described and the products of the reaction are collectedin the header l6 and discharged through the outlet I8.

As is well known in this art the reaction generates heat and this heatis transferred to the bath and the temperature of the bath is maintainedat a substantially constant point by regulating the volume or weight ofair which passes inwardly through the connection 32 and from thence tothe chamber 39 which communicates with the cooling tubes 30, the airentering the inside of the cooling tubes around the return sections lland after traversing the tubes GD returning through the sections 4| tothe central chamber 35 from whence it is discharged through the outlet34.

The transverse arrangement of the two sets of tubes 1. e., the catalysttubes I4 and the cooling tubes 40 and ll provides an extremely efficientpiece of apparatus and one in which the temperature can be controlledwith great accuracy. In addition the structural arrangements are such asto provide for the greatest accessibility to all portions of theapparatus with the least amount of interference with any other portionnot involved at the time. For example, the catalyst tubes may beinspected or repaired and the catalyst changed if necessary without inany way disturbing any of the air circulating tubes and connections andvice versa except, of course, that when any tube has to be removed andreplaced it may be necessary, with certain types of baths, to drain thechamber 5 while the liquid is hot as otherwise it would become solid andwould prevent the removal of the tube. more, if a tube were removedwithout draining the bath, the bath, of course, would escape through theopening from which the tube was removed. Many other advantages incidentto the structure will be apparent to those skilled in this art.

. What I claim is:

1. A catalyst converter, comprising in combination, a liquid bathchamber, vertically extending catalyst tubes passing therethrough, acoolingmedium header chamber adjacent a side of said liquid bathchamber, a second cooling-medium header chamber beyond said first headerchamber on the same side of said liquid bath chamber, and horizontalreturn-flow cooling-medium tubes extending into the liquid bath chamber,the outflow sections of said cooling-medium tubes communicating with oneof said header chambers and the corresponding return-flow sectionsthereof communicating with the other of said header chambers.

2. A catalyst converter, comprising in combination, a centralcooling-medium header chamber, an annular cooling-medium header chambersurrounding said central chamber, an annular Furtherliquid bath chambersurrounding said annular cooling-medium chamber, vertical catalyst tubes3. A catalyst converter, comprising in combination, a centralcooling-medium header chamher, an annular cooling-medium header chambersurrounding said central chamber, an annular liquid bath chambersurrounding said annular cooling-medium chamber, vertical catalyst tubesin said liquid bath chamber, a tube plate closing each end of the liquidbath chamber, the ends of the catalyst tubes being secured in said tubesheets, an upper and a lower header for circulating the gas tobe treatedthrough said catalyst tubes, horizontal return-flow coolingmedium tubesextending into the liquid bath chamber, the outflow sections of saidhorizontal tubes communicating with one of said cooling-- medium headerchambers and the corresponding return-flow sections thereofcommunicating with the other of said cooling-medium header chambers, acooling-medium supply connection communicating with one of saidcooling-medium header chambers, and a cooling-medium outlet connectioncommunicating with the other of said cooling-medium header chambers.

4. A catalyst converter comprising in combination, a central warm airoutlet chamber, an annular cold air inlet chamber surrounding said warmair outlet chamber, an annular liquid bath chamber surrounding said coldair inlet chamber, vertical catalyst tubes in said liquid bath chamber,a tube plate closing each end of said liquid bath chamber, the ends ofthe catalyst tubes being secured in said tube plates, a plurality ofhorizontal cooling tubes extending from the cold air inlet chamberthrough the liquid bath chamber, said tubes being closed at their outerends, and a plurality of warm air return tubes in said cooling tubes,said warm air return tubes extending from a point near the closed endsof the cooling tubes through'the annular cold air supply chamber to thecentral warm air outlet chamber.

5. A catalyst converter comprising in combination, an outer cylinder andan inner cylinder formingan annular liquid bath chamber, a tube sheetclosing each end of said chamber, catalyst tubes extending through thechamber and the tube sheets, a gas inlet header communicating with oneend of said catalyst tubes, an outlet header communicating with theother end of said catalyst tubes, a cylinder within said inner cylindercooperating with the latter to form an annular header chamber and itselfforming a central header chamber, a plurality of tubes extending fromsaid annular header chamber through said liquid bath chamber in adirection generally transverse of the catalyst tubes, said transverselyextending tubes being closed at their outer ends, a plurality ofopen-ended tubes Within said transverse tubes, said open-ended tubesextending inwardly from a point near the closed ends of the transversetubes through the annular header chamber to the central header chamber,a cooling-medium supply connection communicating with one of said headerchambers, and a cooling-medium outlet connection communicating with theother of said header chambers.

6. A catalyst converter comprising in combination, an outer cylinder andan inner cylinder forming an annular liquid bath chamber, a tube sheetclosing each end of said chamber,

catalyst tubes extending through the chamber and the tube sheets, a gasinlet header communicating with one end of said catalyst tubes, anoutlet header communicating with the other end of said catalyst tubes, acylinder within said inner cylinder cooperating with the latter to forman annular cooling-medium supply chamber and itself forming a centraloutlet chamber for the cooling medium, a plurality of coo-ling tubesextending from said cooling-medium supply chamber through said liquidbath chamber in a direction generally transverse of the catalyst tubes,said cooling tubes being closed at their outer ends, and a plurality ofcooling-medium return tube sections within said cooling tubes, saidsections extending inwardly through said annular cooling-medium supplychamber and discharging into said cooling-medium outlet chamber.

'7. A catalyst converter comprising in combination, a lower orsupporting tube plate, an annular liquid bath chamber carried thereon, aplurality of upstanding catalyst tubes in said chamber secured at theirlower ends in said supporting plate, an upper tube plate closing theliquid bath chamber, the upper ends of said catalyst tubes being securedtherein, an expansion joint between the top of the upper outer wall ofthe liquid bath chamber and said upper tube plate, a gas supply headerfor said catalyst tubes carried on the upper face of said upper tubeplate, an outlet header for the catalyst tubes below said supportingtube plate, a central warm air outlet chamber carried by said upperplate and forming an annular cold air supply chamber between said liquidbath chamber and said central warm air outlet chamber, a cold air supplyconnection communicating with said supply chamber also carried on saidupper tube plate, a warm air outlet connection on said upper plate, aplurality of horizontal cooling tubes extending from the cold air supplychamber through the liquid bath chamber, said cooling tubes being closedat their outer ends, and a warm air return tube in each cooling tubeprojecting through the cold air supply chamber and discharging into thewarm air outlet chamber.

JAlVIES M. JENKINS.

